Google to add ‘professional’ female emojis “Finally”

Search engine giant Google wants to give emoji – those small digital images or smiley faces used to express an idea or emotion – more female representation especially around jobs.

A group of Google employees has submitted a set of 13 new emoji to the Unicode Consortium in a bid to increase the representation of women in emoji.

Rachel Been, Agustin Fonts, Nicole Bleuel, and Mark Davis, the latter being co-founder and president of the Unicode Consortium, have asked the group to standardize their proposal because women are statistically the heaviest users of emoticons and having these emoticons available will actually empower this segment. The proposed 13 emoticons “better reflect the pivotal roles women play in the world.” They even go so far as suggesting that emojis should actually also represent those who don’t identify as any particular gender in order to create a broader spectrum.

The proposal includes female emoji categories specifically in business, health care, science, education (graduate), technology, industry (factory/metallurgical worker, high-tech factory/assembly line worker, mechanic/repair person), farming, food service, education (professor), and music. But while it is geared towards female representation, there is also room for the categories to be added for men.

Since this is still just a proposal of course, there is no guarantee that it will be adapted by the Unicode Consortium. Or it may be approved but there will probably be major revisions later on. And with the Unicode President himself backing this up, we might see some version of it later this year or next year.

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